Is a game that features pornography as a subject actually pornography? This philosophical question is one we're having to consider following recent events on Steam. Indie game You Must Be 18 Or Older to Enter is a text-based horror game about a kid trying to check porn on a computer during the 90s, trying to avoid getting caught by his parents. After having enjoyed a spell on Steam with decent attention and success, coming through the Greenlight program earlier this year and getting good reviews, it has now been removed from the service.
One of the developers, James Earl Cox, has commented on this story to Game Informer:
"In the brief exchange we had with Valve, I tried to ground the conversation by pointing out how widely received the game was on the grounds that it isn't porn. For instance, Tokyo Game Show displayed it in their Indie Pavilion without a single question, and that's a nation with serious censorship laws."
Cox has also written a lengthy blog post on You Must Be 18 Or Older to Enter on Gamasutra and says the video game world must be better at handling sensitive topics. It's well worth a read.
You Must Be 18 Or Older to Enter clearly walks a fine line, but is it reasonable that a game featured blurred sexually suggestive ASCII images gets banned from Steam?